MEC and SDN Enabling Technologies, Design Challenges, and Future Directions of Tactile Internet and Immersive Communications

Shahd Thabet, Abdelhamied A. Ateya (), Mohammed ElAffendi and Mohammed Abo-Zahhad
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Shahd Thabet: Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44519, Egypt
Abdelhamied A. Ateya: Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44519, Egypt
Mohammed ElAffendi: EIAS Data Science Lab, College of Computer and Information Sciences, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
Mohammed Abo-Zahhad: Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Alexandria 21934, Egypt

Future Internet, 2025, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-40

Abstract: Tactile Internet (TI) is an innovative paradigm for emerging generations of communication systems that support ultra-low latency and highly robust transmission of haptics, actuation, and immersive communication in real time. It is considered a critical facilitator for remote surgery, industrial automation, and extended reality (XR). Originally intended as a flagship application for the fifth-generation (5G) networks, their strict constraints, especially the one-millisecond end-to-end latency, ultra-high reliability, and seamless adaptation, present formidable challenges. These challenges are the bottleneck for evolution to sixth-generation (6G) networks; thus, new architects and technologies are urgently required. This survey systematically discusses the most important underlying technologies for TI and immersive communications. It especially highlights using software-defined networking (SDN) and edge intelligence (EI) as enabling technologies. SDN improves the programmability, adaptability, and dynamic control of network infrastructures. In contrast, EI exploits intelligence-based artificial intelligence (AI)-driven decision-making at the network edge for latency optimization, resource usage, and service offering. Moreover, this work describes other enabling technologies, including network function virtualization (NFV), digital twin, quantum computing, and blockchain. Furthermore, the work investigates the recent achievements and studies in which SDN and EI are combined in TI and presents their effect on latency reduction, optimum network utilization, and service stability. A comparison of several State-of-the-Art methods is performed to determine present limitations and gaps. Finally, the work provides open research problems and future trends, focusing on the importance of intelligent, autonomous, and scalable network topologies for defining the paradigm of TI and immersive communication systems.

Keywords: tactile internet; immersive communications; software-defined networking; edge intelligence; network function virtualization; ultra-low latency; 6G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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